What is the core structural focus of the 2024 India–UAE Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) within India’s international investment strategy?

Correct — C. On 7 October 2024 the Finance Ministry said the treaty would boost investor confidence by assuring minimum standard of treatment and non-discrimination, and it listed a National Treatment provision among the features.

The rest of that list, from protection against expropriation to transfers and compensation for losses, protects an investment already made. Nothing on it grants a right of entry. That is option (c).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Proposes joint sovereign funds and links INR swap with UAE banks. — The treaty's feature list has no fund or currency clause. The INR–AED currency swap is a separate arrangement between the RBI and the Central Bank of the UAE.
• (b)
  Focuses on pre-establishment rights and UAE-based arbitration. — The ministry's feature list names no pre-establishment right. Its dispute route is investor-state arbitration after 3 years of local remedies, and the ministry describes no UAE-based forum.
• (d)
  Aims at GCC-wide tax regulation under India-led digital framework. — The treaty is bilateral, between India and the UAE alone, so it cannot regulate the wider GCC. Its scope also carves out measures related to taxation.

A bilateral investment treaty protects investors of one country in the other: it sets a floor for how their investments are treated and lets them take disputes to international arbitration.

India rewrote its template in the Model BIT text the Cabinet approved in December 2015, with national treatment, protection against expropriation and arbitration only after local remedies are exhausted.

The 2024 UAE treaty keeps national treatment and expropriation protection, requires 3 years of local remedies before arbitration, preserves the state's right to regulate, and carves out taxation, subsidies and government procurement.

Key facts

• The India–UAE BIT was signed at Abu Dhabi on 13 February 2024 and entered into force on 31 August 2024.
• Its dispute settlement is investor-state arbitration after 3 years of mandatory local remedies.
• Its scope carves out taxation, local government, government procurement, subsidies or grants and compulsory licences.
• The Cabinet approved India's revised Model BIT text on 16 December 2015.

Common traps

• Reading standard in option (c) as a technical standard rather than the minimum standard of treatment owed to investors.
• Assuming a treaty with the UAE must extend to the whole GCC.

No directly related past PYQ was found.